Archive for the ‘Boiling the American Frog’ Category

Behavioral Contagion is the spread of thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and behaviors within a population via biological, psychological, and social mechanisms of contact. The effects of behavioral contagion can be beneficial or harmful to societies.

From my perspective, and generally speaking, the results of conservative social and political polices in America have been essential to our ascendency in the world. The importance of Judeo/Christian influences must also not be underestimated.

The net effects of America’s increasing radical liberal/progressive social and political policies have accelerated our cultural decline.The effects of the “religious” non-religion of Secular Humanism is also a part of this damaging mosaic.

Liberal/progressive policies, built upon Secular Humanism, have catalyze bad behavioral contagion within America’s population, and through our national and international policies the harm has spread to the world.

However, this same cycle of decline has been independently occurring throughout Western Civilization for what appears to be similar reasons.

I have blogged extensively about the mechanisms and effects of behavioral contagion among populations. Please consider doing a search on the upper right side of my home page. Simply type “behavioral contagion” in the search box.

The concept of technological determination identifies a very important class of variables producing cultural change. This concept identifies the ways in which technological advancements change the culture in which they occur. Technological advancements directly change the behaviors, thoughts, beliefs (expectations) and emotions of those who use, or in other ways, benefit from the new technology.

Technological change is an important stimulant to the mechanisms of behavioral contagion within a population. Easy examples of this cultural evolutionary force can be found in the clock, gun powder, the manufacture of steel, the internal combustion engine, the discovery of germs, modern medical practices, air travel, space travel, medical advancements, etc., etc., etc.. The population behaviors, thoughts, beliefs and emotions that have changed as a result of such technological advancements are virtually countless: These behavior changes could be categorized as good or bad for the evolution of a culture.

But for America, consider the following: At a time when two-parent families are financially stretched to the limit and both parents are commonly working; when approximately one in four children are being raised by a single parent; when the stabilizing force of grandparents living near to nuclear families has been greatly reduced by mobility; when children are left unsupervised more often than ever; when the mental health of children has been in decline; when the entertainment media increasingly showcases bizarre behaviors, gay and straight sexuality, pornography of every description and florid extreme violence;…how could anyone expect that a technology that increases children and teen’s exposure to such media would not catalyze bad contagion?

Unsupervised and unlimited access to cyberspace unquestionably opens children and teens to the effects of obscene real and simulated violence, pornography, sexting, aggressive bullying and brutal, inhumane treatment by peers through social media .

All of this without limits or restraints. All of this without the healthy teaching effects of real-time social consequences for ungoverned hedonistic and antisocial behaviors.

In the fictional book, “Lord of The Flies”, children were isolated on an island without adult supervision leading horrific outcomes. Now ,in reality, Children are isolated in cyberspace without adult supervision leading to horrific outcomes.

From a conditioning and learning, as well as a social learning theory perspective, all of the above must catalyze bad behavioral contagion in the form of an epidemic of children and youth who are increasingly showing forms of psychopathology: Anxiety, Depression, Substance Dependency, Social Withdrawal, Conduct Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Sexual Acting-Out, School Under-Achievement and Withdrawal, Aggression , and more.

I have seen this increase over the past nearly 40 years as a psychologist in private practice. But of course my little practice could easily represent a biased sample of our youth.

Please see a recent evaluation of , not only the frequencies of child disabilities over time, but of a change in rank-orders of the categories of disabilities shifting steadily from physical to mental disabilities. Note that the author of this article dutifully warns that it is hard to prove what is causing this increase.

I warn that there is sufficient research to deduce a multiplicity of causes and society has little time to make corrections to its own harmful practices.

Technological modernity has its advantages. But it also has its disadvantages. This is particularly so for children when they are not in a two parent well-functioning home (ideally with a mother and a father), that appropriately facilitates and supervises their healthy development.

While the following article is not a controlled research study. Its concerns and anecdotal observations reflect the predicted outcomes of a great number of published controlled behavioral science studies.

Please see this article about the apparent harms to children of unsupervised access to smart phones and the internet.

March 29, its Vietnam Veteran’s Day. Let us honor them and extend our deepest gratitude for their service.

Vietnam was a major war. Like all wars, there was a terrible price to pay for the warriors and the civilians involved.

In America, the liberal left frequently undermines and vilifies our warriors. Perhaps no other war showcases this liberal/progressive self-destructive pathology with greater clarity that in America’s War in Vietnam.

As a psychologist, I have provided therapy for Vietnam combat veterans and have learned from them, and history, the far greater savageries perpetrated on both our fighting forces and the civilians of South Vietnam and Cambodia by the North Vietnamese military, the Vietcong and the Khmer Rough.

The Vietnam war has left a shameful mark on American History, alright. But the shame belongs to the liberal politicians, the liberal activists, and the liberal media that once denigrated and propagandized our fighting forces.

I can only hope that every American patriot Vietnam Veteran will feel the healing heart-felt gratitude and honor bestowed upon them by the powerful messages of truth and vindication presented in the movie and other resources below.

The following is an elaboration of my answer to one of my readers who noted the parallel between “progressive” liberals loving the beauty of Colorado and then moving there to remake it into their own brand of social and political pathology… and agents of Islam doing the same thing around the world.

I had not thought about the similarities of Liberals remaking the cultures they infiltrate and Islamic Stealth Jihad that is incrementally transforming the World to Islam and Sharia Law. It is not so hard to grasp the implications of any military take-over, but the incremental long-term effects of stealth liberalism and Islamic Jihad are harder to perceive and defend against.

There is nothing new about a particular culture admiring the physical habitat of another and then invading it to gain social and political control within that new domain. They may also gain hegemony in the new culture by generating disproportionately higher birth-rates than the original population, inbreeding, and aggressive recruitment.

In these ways the new culture may transform the older culture and eventually impose their own alien values (political system, laws, more’s and folkways) upon the indigenous culture. The new culture transforms the old one into their own, or perhaps some new hybrid of the of the two cultures.

This transformational process has been in play since the beginning of living time. It has occurred at all levels of biological existence, in all ecosystems. For our purposes, I will call this manifestation of Natural Selection, Cultural Evolution.

Though it is a natural phenomenon, this no reason not to defend against such alien transformations…particularly when it will lead to either behavioral chaos (Colorado) or totalitarianism (Islamic Sharia Law).

Although “Progressive”-Liberal and Islamic Sharia political/social designs are at polar ends of the behavioral-outcomes continuum. They are equally destructive (though in different ways) to the quality of the cultural organism they pathologically infect.

Take your pick: “progressive”-liberal social and political chaos and decline. Or, totalitariansocial and political rigamortise and decline.

The healthy culture, committed to living long and well, should defend to-the-death against either of these cultural design extremes.

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 3/28/15

P.S., Thanks to Tom Jacobs for commenting on one of my blogs and stimulating my thinking about these cultural evolutionary dynamics.

The original title I selected for this blog was “Another Obama Administration Attack On Christianity In The Military”. However this title was misleading. I therefore took the word “Administration” out of that title.

It is not the “Administration” who is too blame for the well documented attacks on Christianity Americas Military. Furthermore, it is not the Military.

President Obama is the Commander and Chief of America’s Military and therefore he is ultimately responsible for the war on Christianity in America’s Military. How could it be otherwise?

President Barack Obama has done everything in his power, which is great, to remove those who minister to the spiritual needs of our military using historical Judeo/Christian beliefs, values and precepts.

This is an undeniable fact.

See the article immediately below for a history of Obama’s attacks upon Christianity in our Military.

I have warned of Islamic Stealth Jihad in America on this blog many times.

Perhaps I could be seen as an alarmist, or worse yet, a conspiracy monger. However, I would be neither of these things if Islamic forces are really out to transform America into another extension of Islam.

It is possible that you have missed my past blogs on this great threat of the 21st Century, Stealth Jihad and its Sharia Law.

It is essential that Americans understand and guard against the ways in which Islam peacefully (at first), infiltrates and then incrementally transforms increasing proportions of target societies to totalitarian Islamic laws and traditions.

For a review of these stealthy Islamic-Sharia-based Jihad strategies, directly threatening the Constitutional Integrity of America, please type these words in my search box on the upper right of this blog page.

Please learn about the startling Islamic Sharia Law attack on Texas, by reading the following report.

The next President of The United States has to be a person of great personal integrity. Someone who is honest, even to a fault; an individual who says what they mean and means what they say and who does what they say they will do…without regard to their popularity…and with all of their might!

Our next President must be an individual with impeccable ethics born of Judeo/Christian faith and moral precepts.

America’s next president must be one who will defend the spirit of Our Founding Fathers, no matter what the costs to him or her personally. They must be guided by the same principles that guided the founding of this once great nation.

If America can find and elect such a person to its Presidency, America can reclaim is position in the world as the Greatest Nation Ever—once again!

Each American must soon vote determine who our next President will be.

Perhaps Ted Cruz is that person. Perhaps it must be someone else.

Please take the time to view the following video.

Then tell me and others what you think about Ted Cruz and the other emerging candidates for this historical, make-or-break-America, Presidential Election.

It is now imperative the the so called “silent majority” roar in defense of America!

If you really want to belly laugh please take a look at a couple of incredible comedians. They have been making fun of politicians and each-other since the 1960’s and they have returned with comedic vengeance..better than ever!

Make no mistake, Christians are being persecuted by progressive forces in America’s government, judiciary, educational systems and media.

If I have to prove it to you, it would be impossible for me to do so: The evidence is already everywhere around you.

There can be no question that America’s original traditional religious holidays have been increasingly under attack and their representative language, as well as decorative and musical symbols have been increasingly censored, proscribed and vilified.

If this is not apparent to you, you are either in strong denial or you are a propagandist for the progressive forces or our destruction.

I would apologize for the confrontational nature of this blog, but America’s very core is “on the line” and it is no time to mince words. Without its strong organizing and defining founding religion, America will further fragment, factionalize and decline.

Reverend Franklin Graham is more delicate in his clear presentation of the great American war on Christianity.

A friend sent the following to me, purported to be written by comedian Jeff Foxworthy. However, it appears to have been written by Fritz Edmunds and originally posted to a blog in 2013.

Like so many things floating through cyberspace, this document has been falsely attributed (see the bottom of the page for the Snopes analysis of authorship).

Never-the-less, this is a well-written smorgasbord of life in the United States that supports my own assertion that America is Nuts. I hope you will locate my past blogs on the “America Is Nuts” theme. Simply enter that title in my search box on the upper right side of this page).

The following list of American Idiocies further substantiates my position. It also goes to illustrate the age-old observation that tragedy and humor are closely related.

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A Country Founded by Geniuses but Run by Idiots NOT BY Jeff Foxworthy

If you can get arrestedFor hunting or fishing without aLicense, but not for enteringAnd remaining in the country illegally, you might live in a nationThat was founded by geniuses, but isRun by idiots.

If you have to get yourParents permission to go on aField trip or to take an aspirinIn school, but not to get an abortion,You might live in aNation that was founded by geniuses, but is run by idiots.

If you MUST show yourIdentification to board anAirplane, cash a check, buy liquor,Or check out a library book and rent a video, but not to vote forWho runs the government, you might live in a nation that wasFounded by geniuses, but is run by idiots.

If the government wants toPrevent stable, law-abidingCitizens from owning gun magazinesThat hold more than ten rounds,But gives twenty F-16 fighter jetsTo the crazy new leaders in Egypt,You might live in a nationThat was founded by geniuses, but isRun by idiots.

If, in the nation’s largestCity, you can buy two 16-ounce sodas,But not one 24-ounce soda,Because 24-ounces of a sugaryDrink might make you fat,You might live in a nationThat was founded by geniuses, but isRun by idiots.

If an 80-year-old woman or aThree-year-old girl who isConfined to a wheelchair can beStrip-searched by the TSA at the airport,But a woman in a burka or a hijabIs only subject to having her neck and head searched,You might live in a nationThat was founded by geniuses, but isRun by idiots.

If your government believesThat the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is toSpend trillions more,You might live in a nationThat was founded by geniuses, but isRun by idiots.

If hard work and success areMet with higher taxes andMore government regulation and intrusion,While not working is rewarded with Food Stamps, WICChecks, Medicaid benefits, subsidized housing, and free cell phones,You might live in a nationThat was founded by geniuses, but isRun by idiots.

If being stripped of yourConstitutional right to defendYourself makes you more safeAccording to the government,You might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

John Adams had a strong and argumentative personality that could irritated others. Yet, he was noted for his integrity and great loyalty to America. He was an amazing talented man who made monumental personal sacrifices to help construct America’s Constitutional Republic.

Once close allies, Adams and Thomas Jefferson became bitter political opponents. However, in their later years there was a reconciliation and they again became very close old friends, as documented through their many letters to each other.

Adams and Jefferson were the last of America’s living Founding Fathers.

History records an amazing coincidence:

“After his presidency, Adams lived quietly with Abigail on their family farm in Quincy, where he continued to write and to correspond with his friend Thomas Jefferson. Both Adams and Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of American independence. Adams’s last words were, “Thomas Jefferson survives.’ ”

Adams did not know that Jefferson had died five hours earlier.

I think you will enjoy the following video and article about John Adams.